The Place of Personal Faith in the Classroom

By JOHN D. BARBOUR

Many religious-studies professors consider personal references
to one's own faith to be out of place in an academic context. Even
professors of biblical studies and theology at the church-related
liberal-arts college where I teach are cautious about revealing
their religious convictions. We want students to learn to think
critically. Nevertheless, I think we scholars of religion are so
worried about looking like Sunday-school teachers or evangelists
that we do not explain our own religious